GAME REPORT

Krasnye Crush Keravnos, Stay Perfect

Krasnye Krylia kept up their perfect record at the top of Group B in the EuroChallenge as they cruised to an 82-51 win over Keravnos Strovolou on the road.

Keravnos began brightly as they aimed to pull off the upset, but they could not keep it going much beyond the first quarter before Krasnye's quality began to show.

Nikita Balashov led Krasnye with 18 points and Omar Thomas added 16, with Aaron Miles and Chester Simmons each collecting 10.

But they gave themselves work to do after Kervanos started strong, pulling 15-4 ahead on a Bobby Maze driving lay-up.

But back-to-back threes from Miles and Jeremiah Massey were followed by back-to-back dunks from Balashov as Krasnye came storming back.

It took them until early in the second quarter to level it at 22, but once they had their noses in front they did not look back, and a 12-2 run early in the third had them up 46-33 when Balashov slammed home Miles' alley-oop pass.

Nine unanswered points stretched the lead to 57-37 late in the third quarter and they only continued to pile it on in the fourth, scoring the final 10 points of the game as they refused to show Keravnos any mercy.

Lawrence Kinnard led Keravnos with 11 points while Julian Vaughn had 10.

COACH QUOTES

Quotes: Keravnos - Krasnye Krylia

Keravnos head coach Panayiotis Yiannaras

"Congratulations to Krasnye Krylia for their win. We took what we gave and the final score reflects the picture of the game. We knew that if we lose focus, even for a brief moment, Krasnye Krylia would punish us. Although we started really well, we then lost focus, made bad choices, a lot of mistakes and our opponent punished us. Now we need to focus on our home league game on Saturday and then we have two very important away games for EuroChallenge which we have to win if we want to progress to the next round."

Keravnos player Panayiotis Trisokkas

"Congratulations to Krylia for their game and the well deserved win. We started very well and built an early 10-point lead. After that it seems that we stopped playing. Now we have two very important away games and we will do our best to win them both and qualify. We want to apologise to our home fans for the bad performance tonight but we promise to stay focused in the future and win games."

Krasnye Krylia head coach Sergey Bazarevich

"We are very happy to win here tonight because Keravnos is a very good team coming from two important home wins. Keravnos has good American players and we knew that. We did not start very well but once we improved our defence we were able to come back, balance the game and eventually win with a comfortable margin. For us it was very important to qualify to the last 16 of this competition and I am very happy that we are on track to do that with two games left."

Krasnye Krylia player Aaron Miles

"For us this was a very important win against a very good team. They came out hot and surprised us but we turned up our defence and forced them to make a lot of mistakes. It feels good to win and be able to qualify. Now we have two more games but we feel a lot more relaxed. "

51-82

COACH QUOTES

Quotes: Keravnos - Krasnye Krylia

Keravnos head coach Panayiotis Yiannaras

"Congratulations to Krasnye Krylia for their win. We took what we gave and the final score reflects the picture of the game. We knew that if we lose focus, even for a brief moment, Krasnye Krylia would punish us. Although we started really well, we then lost focus, made bad choices, a lot of mistakes and our opponent punished us. Now we need to focus on our home league game on Saturday and then we have two very important away games for EuroChallenge which we have to win if we want to progress to the next round."

Keravnos player Panayiotis Trisokkas

"Congratulations to Krylia for their game and the well deserved win. We started very well and built an early 10-point lead. After that it seems that we stopped playing. Now we have two very important away games and we will do our best to win them both and qualify. We want to apologise to our home fans for the bad performance tonight but we promise to stay focused in the future and win games."

Krasnye Krylia head coach Sergey Bazarevich

"We are very happy to win here tonight because Keravnos is a very good team coming from two important home wins. Keravnos has good American players and we knew that. We did not start very well but once we improved our defence we were able to come back, balance the game and eventually win with a comfortable margin. For us it was very important to qualify to the last 16 of this competition and I am very happy that we are on track to do that with two games left."

Krasnye Krylia player Aaron Miles

"For us this was a very important win against a very good team. They came out hot and surprised us but we turned up our defence and forced them to make a lot of mistakes. It feels good to win and be able to qualify. Now we have two more games but we feel a lot more relaxed. "